The origin of the Advent
Calendar can be traced back to the 19th. Century.
The first styles came from the protestant area.
So religious families made a chalk line for every
day in December until Christmas Eve.The first known Advent
Calendar which was made by handwork is from the
year 1851.
Other early styles
were the Adventclock or the Adventcandle - a
candle for each of the 24 days until Christmas,
like todays Advent wreath. So in religious
families little pictures were hang up on the wall
- one for each day in December. An other
tradition was to paint chalk strokes on the door,
one per day until Christmas Eve.
In 1902 a Christian Bookshop in Hamburg published
a Christmas Clock which was very similar to that
published 1922 by the St. Johannis printing
company. (Dominik Wunderlin, lic.phil.
Swizzerland). The Austrian (NÖ) Landesmuseum is
giving the year 1903 as the year of the first
printed Advent Calendar. In 1904 an Advent
Calendar was inserted in the newspaper
"Neues Tagblatt Stuttgart" as a gift
for their readers.
In contrast to the
above Esther Gajek says that the first printed
speciem was made in 1908 by a Swabian
parishioner, Gerhard Lang (born 1881 in
Maulbronn, Germany -died in 1974).
When he was a child
his mother made him an Advent Calendar with 24
"Wibbele" (little candies) which were
sticked on a cardboard.
